By Euronews
Published on
A video of a large crowd in the Greek city of Thessaloniki has been shared online alongside claims that protests have brought the country to a standstill.
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“Greece is paralysed”, several posts say, claiming that airports, ports, factories and trains have stopped operating. Others describe massive protests erupting across the country.
The footage shows a real demonstration, but it was filmed more than a year before the posts appeared.
The same footage was posted online in February 2025, when large demonstrations across Greece marked the second anniversary of the Tempi rail disaster.
In February 2023, 57 people were killed when a passenger train and a freight train collided near Tempi in central Greece, with the disaster sparking anger and calls for enhanced railway safety in the country.
The anniversary protests were accompanied by a general strike on flights, train services and ferries. Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in more than 300 cities and towns in Greece and abroad, demanding justice for the 57 people killed in 2023.
This, however, occurred in 2025. The resurfaced videos do not indicate a new shutdown in September of this year.
The disaster remains a painful issue in Greece. A criminal trial began in Larissa in March and is currently ongoing, with 36 defendants, including a station master and railway officials, facing charges connected to the collision and subsequent deaths. Relatives of the victims continue to seek answers, some of whom are giving evidence.
There were indeed protests in Greece in September: thousands of people demonstrated in Thessaloniki on 5 September 2026.
These protests surrounded the cost of living crisis and called for action on wages and pensions, coinciding with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ annual speech on the economy in the city.
More than 25,000 protested in Thessaloniki, according to police estimates cited by AP. Unions and other groups called for higher incomes.
These demonstrations are, however, separate from the footage posted in 2025, which is not recent.
